Last week, one morning when I fed Enzo, he didn't finish his breakfast. Those of you who know Enzo (or most any other dog, for that matter,) know this is very unusual for him, so after his walk, I called up the vet. They weren't too concerned about him not eating, but when I mentioned that he'd been drinking a lot of water for the past several months, they asked me to bring him in because excessive thirst can mean nothing, but it can also be a sign of diabetes or kidney disease.

So that Saturday, I brought him in and they took a urine sample from him. Unlike people, this does not involve him calmly peeing into a cup, but instead meant that one of the vet techs had to chase him around with a little pan as he walked around and marked things outside. When they got the results of the urine test, they found blood and protein, which was an indication that he might have kidney problems (since those things should have been filtered out.) They took a blood sample and the vet told me she would call me back on Wednesday.

I got a call Wednesday afternoon from the vet, and she told me that the waste levels in his blood were high, meaning that indeed his kidneys weren't working correctly. I asked if this was basically kidney failure, and she said it wasn't yet, but that it was heading that direction. She said the next step would be to get a kidney biopsy to see exactly what the problem is, and therefore be able to better plan out a course of treatment. However, before they can do that, they needed to check his blood pressure, because hypertension can increase the risk of a bleed after a biopsy.

So this morning at 7:30 it was back to the vet to get a blood pressure check. A series of readings all had his blood pressure over 200 (normal for dogs is <160), so the vet wrote him a prescription for a blood pressure medication, which I started him on today. Assuming his blood pressure gets under control, he's going to have the kidney biopsy next week, and then I should have results a week after that.

In cases like these, you generally can't cure the disease, but manage the symptoms and try to make the dog as comfortable as possible. For now, Enzo isn't showing any signs of feeling sick, so I'm hoping I can make that last. The vet told me that the last dog she treated with early kidney disease like Enzo's lived another year and a half after diagnosis, so hopefully we can get at least that much time.

I know Enzo isn't very good at making people friends, but if you're reading this, please send him good thoughts.

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